Lessons for topic Relative Pronouns

Here are some ways to say the same thing using in cui or nel quale, nella quale, nei quale, nelle quale (in which).

This is a grammar exercise, so not necessarily will a new solution be a good-sounding solution. The point is to see how different relative pronouns can be placed inside a sentence. When you use "quale" with its preposition and article, you need to determine the gender and number. The reference noun and article are in boldface.

Relative pronouns allow us to combine two shorter sentences that are related to each other into a longer one made up of two clauses. Similarly to English, we distinguish between main or independent clauses and subordinate dependent clauses. And when there is a relative pronoun present, it is part of what's called "a relative clause."

The first relative pronoun that Daniela describes is che (that/which).

La spiaggia di Mondello è la spiaggia dei palermitani. The Mondello beach is the beach of the inhabitants of Palermo.

In order to combine these two short sentences, we use a relative pronoun to connect the clauses. We replace la spiaggia di Mondello with che (which), so it's both a pronoun that replaces a noun, and a conjunction that connects two parts of the [new] sentence.

Let's look at an example in which che translates nicely with "that," but can work fine with "which," too. In English, "that" and "which" are often interchangeable, but we need to keep in mind that "which" needs a comma before it, and "that" doesn't (most of the time).

C'è un ballo tradizionale che si chiama il "salterello" [saltarello].

There's a traditional dance that is called the "saltarello" [literally, little jump].There's a traditional dance, which is called the "saltarello" [literally, little jump].